Rozaini Mohd Rosli's Blog

Selangor moves to end human trafficking

By Boo Su-Lyn

January 10, 2011 Malaysian Insider

SHAH ALAM, Jan 10 — Selangor has set up a taskforce to tackle human trafficking, state executive councillor Rodziah Ismail said today.

“I am proud that Selangor is the first state, not just to state our commitment to end human trafficking, but to also create the structure to fight human trafficking,” said Rodziah, who will chair the newly-launched Selangor Anti-Trafficking in Persons Council (Mapmas).

Mapmas will review local laws to clamp down on the trade, set up a hotline, and build a shelter for trafficked victims, she said at the launch of the council this morning.

“We will also work together with other agencies involved in preventing human trafficking, such as Immigration, Customs, local authorities and non-governmental groups that help trafficked victims,” she added.

He said there is an estimated two million foreign workers in Selangor, most of whom are illegal immigrants.

“If RM10 is needed to take care of them each day, it comes up to RM20 million,” said Khalid in his speech at the launch today.

“One month is an estimated RM600 million then. Everyone keeps quiet because this is a lucrative business,” he added.

Khalid also recommended a biometric system to monitor the entry of migrant workers.

“If the council feels that this can be done, the state government will look into implementing this,” he told reporters later.

“The council’s operations will not cost more than RM100,000. Many of them will be volunteers,” said Khalid.

Daniel Lo, the head of the Mapmas prosecution sub-committee, told The Malaysian Insider that 237 cases of human trafficking in Malaysia were reported from 2008 till June 2010.

“In those cases, there were 1,551 victims, 330 arrests and only nine convictions,” said Lo, who is the country manager for the NGO Coalition to Abolish Modern-day Slavery in Asia (Camsa).

Malaysia was upgraded last year from Tier 3 to Tier 2 in the Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report 2010 by the US Department of State.

Under the TIP, Tier 1 countries are those whose governments fully comply with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s (TVPA) minimum standards, while Tier 2 countries are countries whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.